Subtle changes in facial coloring can telegraph our emotions to other people, even when we aren’t giving obvious signals like smiling or frowning, suggests research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers used a computer program to analyze hundreds of facial expressions of emotion and found that each emotion produced unique color patters on the face. then, the researchers superimposed the emotional color patterns on pictures of faces with neutral expressions. Participants shown those pictures of neutral faces were able to identify the correct emotion from just the color pattern at a rate greater than chance–they could identify happiness about 70 percent of the time, anger about 65 percent of the time and sadness about 75 percent of the time. (Monitor on Psychology)

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